Needs are dropping, but aid dropping faster, WFP

Despite encouraging growth in Angola's agricultural production and declining numbers of people in need, food insecurity remains a problem in many parts of the country, says the World Food Programme (WFP). In its latest regional food security bulletin the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) said official figures indicated that agricultural production had increased significantly in the 2004/05 season. The production of maize, a staple food, rose 33 percent from 600,000 mt in 2003/04 to 800,000 mt in 2004/05, and agriculture contributed 12 percent to Angola's GDP, up from eight percent the previous year. However, "despite these improvements, production in 2004/05 still fell short of national requirements and pockets of food insecurity and high levels of malnutrition have been identified," FEWS NET noted. Coupled with the scaling-down of humanitarian activities in Angola, particularly WFP operations, there were "growing concerns that food insecurity and malnutrition may rise". WFP country director Rick Corsino told IRIN, "There is certainly an important and general improvement in agricultural production. However, there are still large areas throughout the [central] Planalto region and back to eastern Moxico and Kuando Kubango provinces [in the southeast of the country] where food security remains very much an issue. Since 2003 there have been three consecutive years of increasingly better harvests, but the deficit at national level is still there, and - equally if not more important - there's disparity between areas." "The question is how much can people afford to consume? The accessibility of food is certainly in question here," Corsino added. "In a country like Angola, with serious transport constraints, parts of the country will produce a food surplus but the costs of moving this to deficit areas is extremely high." In the next agricultural marketing year the Angolan government aims to achieve self-sufficiency in cereal and cassava production and stop all maize imports, but Corsino said this was "highly optimistic and would require a leap in agricultural production". WFP plans to end its general food distributions in the next few months and focus on targeted interventions, such as its school-feeding programme, for the remainder of 2006 but donor support remains sluggish. "In 2004 we received $85 million, and about $20 million in 2005 - I would be surprised if 2006 is significantly better than 2005," Corsino said. Although needs continued to drop due to improved agricultural production and the successful resettlement of returning refugees, "donor contributions [to aid programmes] are dropping faster", he concluded.